Babies
Babies & Bathwater is a first season episode of House which first aired on April 19, 2005. Recap A pregnant wife is driving her drunk husband home when she temporarily blacks out and they barely manage to avoid a collision. A policeman pulls them over and, suspecting that she is also intoxicated (due to her trouble speaking), tells the wife, who's name is Naomi, to step out of the car to undergo a sobriety test. When she walks to the back of the car, Naomi collapses in the street. Foreman performs some tests and finds that Naomi's kidney and liver function are off. Naomi reveals that she has misscarried several times and is fearful for the life of her baby. In the following scene, House is "diagnosing" Vogler with a stage IV cancer when he hears Foreman's voice--House has been dreaming--and startles awake. Foreman introduces the Naomi's case and explains that she has lost coordination but has normal blood pressure, to which House responds that it might be an autoimmune disease. House then breaks the news that Cameron has quit. Foreman and Chase think Cameron's quitting is House's fault, and they have a spirited disagreement about what they should to about it. Chase and Foreman visit Naomi to offer reassurance, but she suddenly begins choking on a morsel of pear she is eating. When they stabilizer her, she frantically tells them she can't swallow. Foreman and Chase run tests on Naomi for vasculitis, during which time she apparently goes into premature labor. House runs into Vogler and announces that he has fired Cameron, hoping this information will atone for the embarrassing remarks House made during a speech Vogler bullied him into making (see previous episode). Vogler menacingly demands House's resignation as well as a public apology, and threatens to "destroy" him if he refuses. As the team discusses Naomi's case, House expresses regret at letting Cameron go; he also wonders why the patient choked on soft food. At this point Wilson divulges to House that there is an imminent board meeting to get rid of House. Wilson reminds him that even though House cannot technically be "fired", the terms of House's contract allow for much wiggle room and Vogler is eager to exploit it. On House's advice, Foreman & Chase check Naomi's eyelids, and they also discover that her esophagus is swelling. Over her objections (due to pregnancy) they must order x-rays, and this in turn reveals a suspicious mass pressing against her esophagus. The mass is small cell lung cancer and is unable to be removed surgically, so the team opts for radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Chemotherapy will endanger the baby's life; a further complication being that the baby is at only 28 weeks' gestation and has at best an 80% chance of surviving a Cesarean section. Naomi pleads to delay cancer treatment even one more week, to improve the baby's chances to 90%, but the team strongly objects because her form of cancer is highly agressive and should be treated immediately. Naomi's husband is greatly grieved at the prospect of losing his unborn child but is even more desparate for his wife's survival. At the board meeting, Vogler begins itemizing the "indiscretions" in House's record. Wilson tries to defend House, and Vogler counters with the threat that he will leave with his $100 million dollar donation if House doesn't go. He calls for a vote. Everyone but Wilson votes in favor, and as the vote needs to be unanimous, the motion fails. Vogler then calls for a vote to remove Wilson from the board and sends him out of the room. House isn't happy with the patient's decision to delay treatment and seeks a way to increase her odds; meanwhile concerned with Wilson's whereabouts because they need an oncology consult. House finds Wilson, who reveals he's been fired from the board for keeping House, and House is next. Wilson says he resigned his job because otherwise he probably would lose his career. He agrees to find some drugs from Vogler's clinical trials to help Naomi. House finds Cuddy with a hemorrhoid patient and confronts her about letting Vogler fire Wilson. Cuddy is focused on the money Vogler is giving to the hospital and says that's more important than House - he's just not worth one hundred million dollars. House goes to the doctor in charge of the clinical trial and tells him the patient will start in two days. He prepares to give Naomi a Cesarean section so she can get into the program in two days, infuriating his remaining team that he's risking the patient's life and breaking the clinical trial's protocol. Naomi remains opposed to having the Cesarean section and starts arguing with her husband, who agrees with House. House sends the husband out of the room and asks Naomi about her incontinence. He tells her he also knows she has had a child before. She admits she was pregnant at 18 and got married, but her child had infantile Alexander's diseasehttp://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition=alexanderdisease and died before the age of two. She left her husband and started a new life. House tells her to get over the tragedy and save her own life, and that she's not a hero just because she wants to sacrifice herself for this baby. She agrees to the Cesarean section They anesthetize the patient for surgery, but are interrupted: Vogler has called it off the surgery. A heated showdown between House and Vogler ensues, Vogler alleging that House has broken protocol; consequently the patient's trial participation has been rescinded. He complacently confirms to House that he's going to get fired later that day anyway. The team informs Naomi that she can still start the clinical trial in 30 days, but as they discuss her options she has a seizure from an embolism and now must have surgery, not only for the embolism but the Cesarean section too, or the baby will suffer potential brain damage. However, the C-section will likely kill the patient in this newly deteriorated state. The husband's anxiety about this wife again supercedes the pregnancy and he forbids the Cesarean section. They proceed to remove the embolism but Naomi's blood pressure suddenly drops and they discover there is massive bleeding into her abdomen. House tells them to stabilize the patient and goes to talk to the husband. He tells her she had a trauma and there is nothing they can do to save her, but he has to permit the c-section or the baby dies as well. The husband finally agrees. Although the patient dies, they manage to deliver the baby and get it breathing despite a premature birth. The board meets again on the motion to fire House. Vogler calls for a new vote, but this time Cuddy, just informed by House of the fate of Naomi, opposes the motion. Cuddy and Vogler start arguing about who is more out of control - House or Vogler. Vogler calls for a vote to remove Cuddy from the board. Before they vote, Cuddy tells the board to vote with their conscience. But she also acknowledges a need for medical professionals not to feel "owned" by businesses: if they vote to keep Vogler and his money, he will own them, and their decision to vote her off the board will be the last "free" decision they'll ever make under Vogler. She leaves the room. (Not shown, but implied in the final scene: The board votes to retain Cuddy – Wilson is reinstated and Vogler is dismissed from the board, with Cuddy voting to dismiss Vogler.) The team celebrates, although Cuddy isn't too happy about the lost $100,000,000 and the good that could have been done with it. She reminds House that none of this would have happened if he just could have tried to get along with Vogler. Clinic Patient House tells parents their baby has pneumonia and has lost a lot of weight. The parents are vegans and the baby isn't getting enough fat and protein. He admits the patient. The baby starts improving and House gets ready to send them home, but the police and a social worker come in to arrest the parent. House goes to Cuddy to say Vogler was responsible, but Cuddy said she did it to protect House from Vogler so he won't have an excuse to get rid of him. House is furious - the parents were stupid, not neglectful. The parents come to House and tell him that they followed the advice of the mother's uncle, a nutritionist. House orders a CT Scan. House goes to Cuddy with the results of the scan - the baby wasn't malnourished, it has a problem with its thymus gland. Cuddy agrees to have the charges dropped and House gives her instructions on how to treat the baby, assuming he won't be there. Starring * Jesse Spencer as Dr. Robert Chase * Jennifer Morrison as Dr. Allison Cameron (Credit Only) * Robert Sean Leonard as Dr. James Wilson * Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House * Omar Epps as Dr. Eric Foreman * Lisa Edelstein as Dr. Lisa Cuddy Guest Starring * Chi McBride as Edward Vogler Trivia * Although credited, Jennifer Morrison does not appear in this episode. Category:Episodes